In this part of the story Gary Stevens is given the quest to find the Eternal Flame, the Devil's guitar.
It was raining outside. The alley was perfect for a nightly swim in the gutter. Gary landed on his stomach and his face hit the wet concrete next to a big puddle of water. He didn’t even feel his face hit the ground, he was too angry. He turned around and got up to a sitting position, his crimson red coat landed on his head and he could hear something else land in the puddle of water behind him. Under the coat he could hear the door closing, locks clicking into place. He tore the coat from his face and turned around to look behind him. What he saw made him even angrier. His top hat had landed in the dirty water his face had avoided just seconds earlier. “Perfect end to a perfect fuckin’ fiasco.”, Gary thought as he got up. He put his coat on, wiped the hat on his pants before putting it on. Then he turned to the door and screamed “Stan, you can take your fuckin’ job and your druellin’ kids and shove’em up your ass.” He started walking through the alley in search of the nearest bar.
“Hey look guys, it’s that rock star dude from that kids’ show on TV.”, the voice came from behind him and Gary turned around. Three guys wearing jeans and leather were closing in on him from behind.
“Can I have your autograph, dude?”, Gary couldn’t remember the last time somebody had asked for his autograph, so he stopped.
“Sure, but lay off the dude shit, will ya?”, he started looking for a pen.
“I like your coat, can I have that?”, another one of the three asked.
“Piss off you little shit. This is the only one in existence, made for me by an old friend, so the answer is simple. Hell no.”, he found a pen and started looking for a piece of paper to write the autograph on.
“I really want that coat an’ I will have it.”, the guy pulled out a switchblade and his friends were all of a sudden holding a chain and a small baseball bat.
“Oh, you’ve done it now boys.”, a smile was spreading across Gary's face.
He shoved the pen into somebody’s neck and he punched somebody right on the nose. Then he felt the air leave his lungs. “Fuckin’ pussies with baseball bats.”, he thought as he fell to the ground. The second time the same night his head struck concrete. This time did not feel any better than the last. Beside him lay the guy with the pen in his neck and the two others were closing in for the kill. He could hear the chain razzing and the other guy was beating the baseball bat in his hand looking so cool against a helpless victim.
A thunderous roar coming from the shadows filled the alley. Gary saw the shadow of a huge man on the wall behind the punks who were about to kill him. They turned around and stared at the shadowy figure moving closer. Gary heard a dripping sound and as the two armed kids ran past him he smelt urine. “Two real tough guys huh?”, he thought. “Come back you little wimps, we can take him, just help me up.”, he shouted at the running cowards. The shadowy giant was moving closer and Gary was wondering if he had survived a mugging one minute just to be eaten alive by a giant the next. Perfect end to a perfect evening.
The moving shadow disappeared into the other shadows. The rain was pouring down and Gary’s hat, hair and crimson coat were soaked. Out of the shadows walked a small figure, no bigger than a dwarf dressed in a raincoat and a huge hat. Gary couldn’t see his face and something about the way the midget moved scared him.
“Good evening.”, the midget was standing over Gary, looking down at him. Gary couldn’t see a face, just red eyes and a mouth full of small pointy, sharp teeth.
“Thanks for your help midget, but now piss off.”, Gary climbed to his feet.
“I ain’t goin’ anywhere. I’ve come to collect.”, the midget was smiling and Gary could see a red slimy tongue moving around his teeth as the midget spoke.
“Collect what? I haven’t got shit.”, Gary yelled at the small monster who could almost reach his crotch.
“Do you remember these words? I’d sell my soul for fame and fortune. Do you remember who said that over a ouija board during a session?”, the monster held his small hands fingertips against fingertips and smiled with an evil grin all over his face.
“No, should I? It must’ve been Bash, he was always talking about selling his soul or some lame shit like that.”, Gary was really trying, but he couldn’t remember who said those words. Every time they’d played with that ouija board they’d been stoned or drunk, who’d play around with that crap sober?
“It was you, you fuckin’ retard.”
“So what? That shit doesn’t mean anything anyway.”, Gary was starting to doubt himself.
“Oh, so what am I doing here then?”, the monster stretched out his neck and Gary could see his skin was green.
“You can’t be the devil.”
“No, of course not. I’m just a goblin.”
“If you’ve come to collect my soul, wouldn’t you have to wait for me to die first?”
“The way I see it your life is over.”
“I can’t argue with you there. Just don’t expect me to go quietly.”, Gary raised his fists.
“What good are your fists going to do up there when my teeth are down here?”, the goblin was staring at Gary’s crotch. Gary took a few steps back. “Don’t worry, I want you to do something for me.”
“I ain’t goin’ on no fuckin’ crusade to kill the second coming of Christ.”, Gary shook his head.
“What are you on? I just want you to find the Eternal Flame and I’ll let go of my claim to your soul.”, the goblin reached out his arms.
“And where am I supposed to find some fag shit like that? Probably in some monastery in Tibet.”, Gary couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“No, it’s the Devil’s instrument.”
“You want me to steal a fuckin’ violin? Forget about it. I don’t even go near those squeaky things. I’m afraid it could affect my guitar play.”
“The Devil’s instrument is no fuckin’ violin. Let me tell you a story.”, the goblin sat down on the ground.
“Is this a long story? I’ve got shit to do, like I think I should give my manager a call.”, Gary started walking out of the alley.
“Remember why I’m here? If I want to, you’re going to hell right now, it’s up to you.”, Gary sat down on a box next to the goblin.
The goblin looked at Gary sitting on the box. “No no no, this won’t work, I can’t be looking up at you while I’m telling the story, get off the box.”, the goblin got up and motioned to Gary to move.
“Forget it red eye. I’m not sitting on wet concrete.”, Gary wasn’t moving.
“Okay, down we go.”, the goblin was about to snap his fingers.
“I’m only kidding, of course you can have the box.”, Gary moved away from the box and sat down on the ground.
The goblin made himself comfortable on his cardboard box, inhaled a big gasp of air and spoke. “Have you heard of genesis?”
“Yeah, sure. They suck.”, Gary was smiling.
“I’m talking about the beginning of the bible asshole.”, the goblin gave Gary a frustrated look.
“Oh yeah… that. Sure I’ve heard of that too, and that sucks as well.”
“Well, the story I’m about to tell you takes place right at the beginning of genesis…”
“If this is a bible recital I’m outta here.”, Gary was about to stand up.
“One more comment like that and you’ll find out if the album covers are right about what hell looks like or not. Now, shut the FUCK up.”, the goblin stared Gary in the eyes.
Gary stopped in the middle of his motion and sat back down. “Oh, please do continue.”
“God was about to wake his creation Earth to life. He was walking around a dark and empty planet making sure everything was in order. While he was walking around earth Luciel was sitting in his room at his desk looking out through his window at all the stuff his father had created. He imagined what everything would look like down there once the words “Let there be light” were uttered. He imagined blue skies and oceans, green grass, trees and beautiful flowers. These images in his mind gave birth to a wish. A wish that he could somehow give a tribute of his own to all the beautiful things his father had created. His imagination hadn’t shown him any sounds so he started thinking that maybe he could somehow create a sound so beautiful it would actually make his father’s creation seem more living and more ideal than it already was.
The still young Luciel concentrated real hard and all of a sudden he held something in his hands that he had never seen before. He called it an instrument, since it would be used to create sounds of never before seen beauty. The instrument had a head, neck, body and six strings. Lucifer touched the strings with his delicate fingers. They gave a hint of a weak sound. “This won’t do at all.”, he thought, “I need amplification of some kind.” He concentrated real hard and a huge seashell materialized in the air above his desk. It dropped from the air and fell through his desk with a big crashing sound.
“Dad’s gonna be so pissed when he sees this.”, he thought. He looked at the instrument in his hands and thought that maybe his father would forgive him once he heard what his little boy could do with this new tool of his. Luciel touched the strings again and this time a loud screeching sound blazed out of the seashell. The sound made Luciel stagger away from the amplifying seashell holding his ears. He put the instrument on the floor, turned the seashell around so it faced the window and opened the window. He walked around the seashell and stood behind it facing the window. He picked up the instrument, turned his face to the ceiling and closed his eyes.
Luciel raised his small angelic hand into the air in a fist and said out loud, “This one’s for you and your creation dad.” He lowered his hand in a fast motion and hit the strings as it passed the instrument. Still with his eyes closed he played exactly what he felt over his father and his creation. The music filled all of heaven. The tones Luciel was playing made the angels in heaven cry of happiness. Never before had they heard anything so beautiful, this had to be the sound of God and of love, they thought. The music spread over the boundaries of heaven and flew over the dark earth. It reached the ear of God. He looked around him, but he couldn’t understand where the sound was coming from, he hadn’t yet awaken anything on earth so it had to come from heaven. “Oh, children.”, he thought. “You can’t even leave them alone for a minute.” He started walking towards heaven, his job on earth was done for now, everything was prepared.
As he was walking, the sound started changing. It grew bigger, more powerful and deeper. It was as if it was becoming more than just a sound, as if something inside the sound was starting to come alive. “No.”, God thought and started running. The music was now so strong it shook the ground. God was running toward heaven yelling, “Stop, you’ll ruin everything, you bastards.” Suddenly the music went into a high-pitched note and God heard angels singing in a choir and a light spread across the before dark earth. The light was yellow and bright and it blinded him. When he could finally open his eyes he saw blue water, green grass, trees and beautiful flowers. The light came from the sun he had placed above his earth together with the moon and the stars. Everything was just as he had intended but he was the one who was supposed to turn on the light, him, the alpha omega, and no other.
In his room Luciel was still playing with his eyes closed when a bright light suddenly shone through his eyelids. He opened his eyes and what he saw was breath taking. Outside his window there was a world full of colours. He realized what he’d done and stopped playing. Everything went dark once again. “Oops”, he thought. “Man, is dad gonna be pissed now”. He hid the instrument under his bed. While he was trying to cover it up he heard an angry voice yelling from downstairs, “Luciel, where are you?” He walked out of his room to meet his father. “I’m right here dad, something wrong?”. God was already at the top of the stairs, his eyes turned red as he looked at the young angel. “What have I said about angels creating things?”. “That we can’t?”, Luciel asked carefully. “You got that right boy, now where is that instrument of yours?”, God went into Luciel’s room and retuned holding the instrument in his hands. All the other angels had gathered below the stairs and were looking at God and Luciel.
God held the instrument high in the air. “This was created by an angel and is therefore a thing of evil, it has to be cast out of heaven immediately.”
Luciel’s lips were shaking. “No, father, please.” Gabriel stepped forward, “Father, what will you have us do with the angel who created such an awful thing?”
God turned to Luciel. “You were my first and you’ve always been the one I love the most, but you have to understand that you’ve put me in a position where an example has to be made.”
Gabriel was smiling, he knew that with Luciel gone he would be God’s favourite angel, or at least as close to favourite as Gabriel could get.
“I know that this is where you and all the others want to see me swallow my pride and beg for mercy so you’ll let me stay. But I won’t do any of that. Why, you ask. Simple, really, because if you can really find it in yourself to threaten me with casting me out of heaven. I can’t understand how you can ever say that you’ve ever loved me in the first place."
“How dare you speak to our father in that tone?”, Gabriel looked furious.
“Silence Gabriel.”, God turned to Luciel. “You question my love?”
“No father, I question your love for all angels and everything else you’ve ever created. What do you really love, besides yourself?” Luciel turned to the rest of the angels. “Ask yourselves. What has he done for us? Sure he’s created heaven, but let’s face it, it’s boring up here, we have no oceans, no grass, no trees and no beautiful flowers. And don’t even think that he’s going to let us inhabit the earth. Side with me brothers and we can rule all of this as we see fit. I’ve already shown you that we can create just as well as he can.”, Luciel was pointing at God who could see that uncertainty was spreading amongst the angels.
“I will never forgive you for this Luciel.”
“I don’t want your forgiveness, dad. I just want your love and if I can’t have that I’ll take everything else from you.”
Below God and Luciel a fight broke out amongst the other angels.
“Stop this at once.”, God walked down the stairs to them. “I will not have this in my kingdom. Those of you who wish to side with Luciel can do so at your own will, but you will be cast down just as he will.”
Luciel came down the stairs and stood in front of God. The angels split into two almost equal camps.
“Luciel Morningstar. I name thee Lucifer, the bringer of light. And I cast you and your revolting angels out.”
Lucifer fell. He landed somewhere on earth. Nobody knows exactly where, some say he landed in Texas, some say Africa and some say Norway. But the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes, was his instrument, all perverted and scratched. The once so beautiful body had turned into a thorny, black swastika. He looked at it standing in the sand before him and thought, “Some day I’m going to make that symbol mean something to every living fuckin’ thing with an IQ above 2 on this planet.” He walked away to look for the angels that fell with him and left the guitar where it had landed. He had no use for it without the amplifier.
Since then the Eternal Flame has been swung as an axe in several battles. Some Viking was known for carrying an axe that looked really evil, I believe that was the guitar I’m looking for. Then it disappeared for a while and was seen again in the French revolution. And I know some guy fighting for the south swung it again at Gettysburg.”
“So, how the fuck am I supposed to find it?”, Gary couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. But he had to admit it was one hell of a story.
“I don’t give a shit, just find it or come with me.”, the goblin climbed off the cardboard box.
“No problem, I’ll just go to the nearest pawn shop and start asking around.”, Gary got up.
The goblin gave him an odd look. “Well, that might be a place as good as any to start, I guess. Don’t think you’ll find it there though.”
“I was kidding. I’m going to start with a visit to a guitar collector I know.”
“Say hello to Bash for me.”, the goblin disappeared.
Gary raised the collar on his coat and headed home, he was tired.
Pray for the light. Pray that you last that long. The Long Hour Before Light is a classic collection of Horror tales, re-mastered by Champagne Book Group
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